Ice ice baby: Their Take

What do Lady Gaga, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and the cast of "Grey's Anatomy" have in common? They've all dumped buckets of ice water over their heads in the name of ending a deadly neurodegenerative disease. You could be next.

As of Monday, the ice bucket challenge had raised more than $15.6 million for the ALS Association, a nonprofit that funds research and provides support to people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

If you're "tagged" by a person with ice water dripping from their ears, you have a choice: Make a donation to an ALS charity or douse yourself and tag someone else — preferably in a video post on social media. Or you could do both.

Yes, it's a stunt. Yes, there's a lot of name-checking and self-promotion going on. But it's hard to argue with success. That $15.6 million was raised between July 29 and Aug. 18. During the same period last year, the ALS Association raised $1.8 million.

Hashtag activism often generates more noise than money. ...

Raising awareness of a cause is nice. Raising money to promote that cause is even better. The ice bucket challenge has been wildly successful at both, and it's still going strong.